US Jobs Report: August 2018

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August 2018 US jobs data for on September 7th.

Here is the summary:

• The majority of the jobs added in August 2018 were in high-paying sectors, which includes professional and business services with 53,000 jobs, healthcare with 33,000 jobs, and wholesale trade added 22,000 jobs, transportation and warehousing with 20,000 jobs, and mining added 6,000 jobs.
• The number of Non-farm jobs created was 201,000 and higher than economists predicted. The wage growth is the highest since April 2009. The unemployment rate remained strong at 3.9%.
• The labor force participation remained steady at 62.9% in August.
• The average weekly earnings increased to $937.02 in August 2018.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States economy created 210,000 non-farm jobs in August.  As a comparison, the average monthly gain has been 196,000 jobs over the prior 12 months and higher than the 191,000 economist predicted payroll additions. The majority of the jobs were created in the professional and business services, healthcare, wholesale and trade, transportation and warehousing, and mining sectors.

The unemployment rate remained at 3.9% in August. The current unemployment rate is at its lowest level in nearly 50 years. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men increased 0.01% to 3.5% in August. The jobless rates for adult women decreased to 3.6%, teenagers decreased to 12.8%. Unemployment for Whites remained unchanged at 3.4%, Blacks or African American decreased to 6.3% from the previous 6.6%, Asians’ unemployment tricked down to 3.0%.  On the other hand, Hispanic unemployment increased to 4.7% in August.

There was a slight decrease in the labor participation rate, which is at 62.7% percent versus 62.9% in July causing the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.   

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained unchanged at 34.5 hours in August, while average weekly earnings increased by $3.45 from July’s $933.57 to $937.02 in August. This slight increase in wages can create wider positive impact in the economy if it continues.

Overall, while there are new job additions, the unchanged unemployment rate is a reason to keep cautious. The American economy’s stamina in August 2018 sprinted forward at their fastest pace since the recession ended.

To read more on this, please click this link: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

 

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